The third installment of Paranormal Activity is a prequel to the original. The movie is set in 1988, where the sisters Katie and Kristi of the first two movies are little girls. The audience finally gets to find out why this demon is attached to the main character of the first two films. I gotta say, there's nothing shocking to what was revealed in the prequel. The filmmakers have hinted countless times in this movie all the puzzle pieces that bring the prequel together. Paranormal Activity 3 just uses the same tricks as the first two movies. But its those same tricks that work and still get you jumping out of your seat. By the scare factor alone, it's the ultimate date movie.

SPOILERS AHEAD

If you're going to enjoy the film, there are some questions you shouldn't ask like "why do all the men have a fascination with cameras?" and "why the hell doesn't the lead female character ever believe the boyfriend?" Oh and my favorite question, "what kind of idiot agrees to a game of Bloody Mary in a house that has a freakin' demon in it?"

We're made to believe it was shot on a home video camera from the 1980s, but of course in reality the camera was far better than any camera I used in the 80s. Having a home video camera in a movie is a difficult task. The lighting and camera shakiness must be believable. The filmmakers solved the camera issue by having the lead male Micah, played by Christopher Nicholas Smith, be a wedding videographer. So as a professional videographer at least he's got higher end equipment and should know how to document an event. Back in the 80's all the equipment was bigger, the cameras, TVs, and they were using VHS tapes. No computer, keyboard or mouse back then for low budget videographers.

Regarding the picture quality, it's very clear, some objects further from the camera are slightly out of focus.  In the night time scenes the cameras just sit on a tripod and later one camera on a rotating fan . The home video effect is not as dizzying as The Blair Witch Project, but there is added blurriness, graininess, and tape skips which are all valid as something you would expect in a VHS camera. The weird part is the movie is in 1080p widescreen, and we all know that didn’t exist in 1988.

The sound quality is excellent and consistent through the trilogy. Sound is what makes a good scary movie. There is no soundtrack in any of the three movies so adding one now would be ridiculous. The stupidest part of the movie was actually my favorite. The Bloody Mary scene was set up real lame, but it was all worth it for the insanity that took place after they successfully said "Bloody Mary" three times. The violent effects were timed and synced with sound perfectly. In another scene where the older sister was playfully running after her younger sister and suddenly hits, what seems like, a brick wall and then violently gets lifted by her hair. That scene was shocking but kinda glad they beat up the child actor beyond that.

Even though a lot of questions were answered, the ending still leaves a large gap between the years of how the girls lived with a demon. Ha, That would be an awesome TV series, "Paranormal Activity: The Teenage Years - Episode One: My Demon and Me". That's the best way to really kill the franchise. Might as well give the demon a voice too, to really hit the nail on the coffin. But seriously I would not be shocked if we saw more movies or even a TV series out of this franchise.

The Blu-ray set comes with a DVD copy and a digital copy. The special features include a Scare Montage where Dennis scares Julie and Dennis' Commercial which is a commercial for Dennis's business.

I'm a fan of the Paranormal Activity Trilogy, because sometimes it's fun to get the shit scared out of you, even if it is just sound effects that mostly do all the scaring.